Friday, September 24, 2010

Now comes word from ESPN that Clint Bowyer has been penalized 50 points by NASCAR for a skeeball scoring error at the New Hampshire State Fair:

The New Hampshire State Fair Skeeball booth passed inspection upon opening of the State Fair, but upon further reivew at the NASCAR Research and Development Center, issues were discovered with the center cylinder tolerance.

"The cylinder looked stable [before the skeeball booth opened to the public], but getting close to some of the tolerances, and we asked them to come in to see if they weren't in line with regulations," said one official.

Apparently, weakness in the center cylinder walls of the top 50-point area created a tendency to issue an extra 10% worth of scrip tickets. NASCAR discovered this error and realized Bowyer should not have been awarded the 6" plush toy, but rather should receive the set of plastic gummi-snakes.

I'm having fun with this whole points thing, which I'm sure is meaningful for NASCAR but seems ridiculous as a top "sports" story. The whole points currency just doesn't translate (like David Eckstein on paper).

@Mr. FFrom my extremely limited knowledge of NASCAR it has it's roots in people building race cars to move moonshine around. They would have races to see who could outrun the others and it evolved from there. At least that's what I was told.